Archive for October, 2010

Here’s a few shots I grabbed on a recent trip to Rowan County, Kentucky. I’ve passed both this barn and “Dehart’s Bible and Tire” a few times a year for the past 12 years so decided it was about time to stop and shoot them.

I have considered shooting a collection of Quilt Barns but decided that if I would take shooting those as serious as I do the Mail Pouch barns I’d never be home on the weekends. I’ve noticed more and more of these showing up in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Maybe when I run out of Mail Pouch barns I’ll start shooting these.

Betsy and I made our first trip to Parke County, Indiana in November of 2008 so I could shoot as many of their 39 covered bridges in one day as possible. I had no idea what an impossible task we had taken on that day, but it was obvious that it would require a return trip. Last year I set out one morning not knowing where I was headed and again ended up in the “Covered Bridge Capital of the World”. Again, I still couldn’t capture everything in one day!

Last week I told Bets it seemed I was loosing the fall colors early this year and wanted to go on a “photo trip”. Sometimes she’ll just say, “be careful, have a good time, see ya later!”, and other times she’ll go along for the day. If she had known I was going to head out at 7:30 (or wanted to) she may have opted out, but by 8:00 we were headed out for my third trip to Parke County, Indiana.

I had read online that Saturday was the “Parke County Covered Bridge Festival”. I assumed that meant there would be more people than normal driving the back roads and getting in my shots, but discovered there’s actually a huge festival in Bridgeton. Parke County is a very rural area so I was quite surprised to run into miles, and miles of traffic headed to the festival. Luckily I had already shot the bridges in that part of the county in the past so once we got through the mess we were pretty much traffic free for the day.

Without checking my past galleries I can’t say for sure how many Parke County bridges I’ve shot on previous trips, but this visit took us to 12 of the 39 bridges. Again, without looking at past photos I’d say this was the most I’ve shot in one day since going to Parke County. I think it’s time to collect them all and put together a book… “The Bridges of Parke County”. Sound familiar? I’ve had so many people ask me if I’ve shot all the “Bridges of Madison County”, obviously brought on by the movie staring Clint Eastwood. I hate to say, no I haven’t and beyond that I’ve not even made it all the way through the movie! On a side note, the Madison County in the movie is in Iowa, and there are only six bridges in the county. People already think I’m nuts to drive 3 hours to Parke County, Indiana to shoot 12 bridges. My guess is they would have me committed if I drove the 10 hours it would take me to get to those 6 bridges in Iowa! Besides that, it’s Iowa, what else could I shoot? Call me crazy if you’d like, but I enjoy capturing and sharing photographs these structures of our past.

Every September for the past 12 years I have ventured off to the Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Morehead, Kentucky. I started off the first year as a “Poppy Virgin” only going for the closing weekend but over the years have become the “Poppy-razzi” on the mountain. As the “official” photographer I once again went nuts with the camera this year. Although still haven’t come close to my record 2400 shots taken a couple of years ago.

I’d like to thank Marty Stevens for bringing back our old Poppy Mountain! We have missed it over the past few years. I’d also like to thank all my friends on Poppy for putting up with me always having my camera in their face. Especially the jammers trying to play music with my flash going off!

Lastly, I’d like to dedicate this year’s gallery to our old friend Ralph Smith! He was missed this year and will always be in our hearts.